I have this mutt that was rescued from an animal shelter. She's part whatever, but not a bad dog nonetheless....

However, she's a tv addict. She will sit for hours watching the television and she'll notice any type of animal that shows up. Normally, dogs cant see a tv because it blinks 50 times per second and their eyes can't see past that flashing, but I have a 55 inch projection tv.

Anyways, she can be in another room (sleeping of course) and when a commercial comes on that she knows has some type of animal, she b-lines down to the tv. She has now "remembered" numerous commercials just by the music or sound, she loves the national geographic channel when they show wild animals...she will sit or lay there for over an hour just watching the tv.

I've created a monster. She likes cartoons, and she likes to watch when kids are on tv. (she loves them) I have to clean nose prints off the tv screen and I even have to make her sit away from it so she's not too close....I remember my parents telling us kids the same thing...lol

It is said animals can't see TV, but you sure could fool me. When I got my cats spayed, I put them into a cage in front of the TV and they slept most of the time. When they weren't sleeping, they watched TV--Animal Planet of course. They loved the big cat programs.

When they were watching TV more than sleeping, I knew they had recuperated enough to get out of the cage.

Actually, they love their cages. Just prefer to be able to go in and out of them at their own pleasure. My dogs loved their cages too.

I guess it gives them the feeling they have a space that is 'just mine'.

technically they can't see a television. reason is because a television is flashing something like 60 times per second and their eyes can't comprehend that at all....or, something like that.

but, my television is a huge projection tv . projection tv's put the image on a screen and that's what you see. the image is not on a tube...this is why it's visible to them. so, it's like they are looking out of a window.

I read somewhere that if your animal 'sees' a regular TV it means they are 'slow' as in backward. Well, I must have backward cats because they have all been entertained--maybe by the sounds of the TV, but they appeared to be watching it.

They are fast enough when a mouse goes by outside! Unfortunately they are also fast when a snake, dragonfly, butterfly, and unfortunately--bird goes by. I hate all of that--if they would only stick to catching mice.

Outdoor cats are very destructive but unfortunately these cats are spooked by almost anything and they go crazy when they are enclosed in four walls. They have two entrances to the cellar so they don't have to experience bad weather, and they are happy as clams in 'their' territory. I keep them well fed, but that doesn't stop them from hunting.

Hmmmm, wonder if I put a TV out there for them.....nah, they love bouncing around in the tree limbs too much.

ya know those commericals on television that advertise prescription drugs ? they tell you how great the drug is, then proceed to list the side effects....which sometimes seem worse than the reason you would be taking the drug!!!!

technically they can't see a television. reason is because a television is flashing something like 60 times per second and their eyes can't comprehend that at all....or, something like that.

but, my television is a huge projection tv . projection tv's put the image on a screen and that's what you see. the image is not on a tube...this is why it's visible to them. so, it's like they are looking out of a window.

Actually, that is incorrect, at least at chez Stripey... my cats have always watched TV... in fact there are videos created especially for them... of birds and squirrels mostly...

We bought one for the boys when they were kittens and they used to sit in fornt of the TV in rapture... now that they have windows with their own birdies to look at, they don't watch the video anymore...

My dearly departed furr son, Zephyr, used to watch sports with me and once... when a pal was over, he commented that he didn't think cats could see TV, Zeffy stood up on his hind legs and put his paw right on the runner and turned back to us as if to say...

i found this about dogs eye sight....i was close, but not accurate about televisions....

How dogs see

Dogs can see in much dimmer light than humans. This is because the central portion of a dog's retina is composed primarily of rod cells that "see" in shades of gray while human central retinas have primarily cone cells that perceive color. The rods need much less light to function than cones do.

Dogs can detect motion better than humans can.

Dogs can see flickering light better than humans. The only significance to this appears to be that dogs may see television as a series of moving frames rather than as a continuous scene.

Dogs do not have the ability to focus as well on the shape of objects (their visual acuity is lower). An object a human can see clearly may appear to be blurred to a dog looking at it from the same distance. A rough estimate is that dogs have about 20/75 vision. This means that they can see at 20 feet what a normal human could see clearly at 75 feet.

Dogs are said to have dichromatic vision -- they can see only part of the range of colors in the visual spectrum of light wavelengths. Humans have trichomatic vision, meaning that they can see the whole spectrum. Dogs probably lack the ability to see the range of colors from green to red. This means that they see in shades of yellow and blue primarily, if the theory is correct. Since it is impossible to ask them, it is not possible to say that they see these colors in the same hues that a human would. Whether or not the ability to see some color is important to dogs or not is hard to say.

Also consider the perspective that dogs see the world from. A dog with its eyes about 12 inches off the ground certainly sees the world a different way than a human with eyes about 48 inches off the ground like many 5th graders.

As humans we tend to think of dog's visual capabilities as inferior to ours. It is different but it may suit their needs better than possessing accurate color vision would.

Cats can see TV and most cats do watch TV. They just don't like most people shows. The Nature Channel and Animal Planet type shows will sometimes catch your cats attention. Some cats may like sport programs that show rapid movement, like a Hockey game. There are videos made for cats to watch using various types of animals. Choose videos that have jerky movements and ALL nature sounds. Cats generally do not like "music" on videos while watching animals, as it can be distracting. Fish type videos usually do not work well, although a few cats may enjoy. Bird and small animal videos may work well with some cats. Bug videos work well because most indoor cats have encountered real bugs before, plus they offer more movement and can be filmed near real size. Be careful of videos that "zoom in" too much on birds or other animals. When the animals appear much larger than your cat, it could scare your kitty. Cats will remember things that scare them for a very long time and most cats frighten very easily.

Cat's like things THEY can capture, NOT things that can capture Kitty.
While watching TV, cats like to be at eye level, close to the screen. A stool or chair placed at "pawing" distance works well. If you try a video and your cat does not enjoy, try another.
Cats do have individual "tastes" just like humans. Cats also love variety.
Cats do not see the colors on TV as we do.
They appear to see Red colors as muted shades of gray.
This can cause a cat to not see some objects and animals, which is known as "Masking".
The picture of a TV screen is comprised of Red, Blue and Green dots. All colors we humans see on TV are created by mixing these three colors. Since cats cannot see red on TV, the color balance is much different for them. Cats will only see the colors produced by combining Blue, Green and Gray. Objects that are red or contain any red hues against gray, tan or brown backgrounds may be extremely hard for cats to perceive. If you were to adjust your TV hue or tint all the way to the green side, you would get an idea of what a picture looks like with no red hues. Although not exactly what a cat would see, it does illustrate how hard it is to see objects that were easily seen when red was part of the picture. That is why Kitty Show invented the "Serpia" Filter. It changes red colors and hues into primary colors cats can easily see.
It also "defines" outlines, particularly in the gray tones.
Kitty Show produces the only videos for cats in the world
that uses this advanced enhancement technique